Responsible dog breeding does not mean hundreds of show titles nor plenty of sold animals from the breeder. In my opinion, breeding is art, its final product is a masterpiece. Breeding is something special. It is something what you can dive into for the whole life and work hard to achieve your long-term aims.

Definition of breeding

You can use google and find plenty of definitions of breeding. Many of them are connected with livestock breeding, where the breeders were working hard to improve some important characteristics like higher volume of milk production or more meat production and even achieve the birth of more offspring. Similarly, in the breeding of any other animals we – breeders – work hard to IMPROVE some selected characteristics.

“IMPROVE” is the key word I would use in definition of breeding regardless the kind of animals. I would create the following definition. Breeding is as a long-term activity based on a carefully developed plan for the improving of selected characteristics in the given animal species respectively within single breeds. Consequently, dog breeding is the improving of selected characteristics in a single breed based on a carefully developed plan and realized during a long period of time. (I.e. if you have a litter with your only bitch, this is not breeding. Nor having several litters with the same bitch should be called breeding.)

Anatomy

In dog breeding we can talk about plenty of characteristics which we can improve. Let´s start with the anatomy. In my opinion this is the characteristics, which can be improved the most easily – you just need to select your base animals properly. Each dog has some faults but if you choose dogs that are really close to the ideal representative of the given breed described by the standard, you can get beautiful offspring already in F1 generation. In F2 you can even stabilize the given characteristics even more thus achieving that all later dogs from your kennel will have this special feature (for example head typical for that breed). Of course, deep knowledge in genetics and hereditary of given characteristics, as well as of the breed and know-how in the utilization of breeding methods is a must.

Character and working ability

If we breed dogs, there are also other characteristics which can be improved. The most important might be the character, intelligence, working potential, working drive and the eager to please its master. I CAN LIVE WITH AN UGLY DOG, BUT NOT WITH A STUPID DOG.

The unique character of the dog is the characteristics why we love our 4-legged furry friends. We do not love them for the color of their coat or nice anatomy. Their loyalty, their kind eyes looking at us with total devotion or their smiling face making us smile too, make them the pets we enjoy each day. This is the reason, why we decide to breed and to create similar loving beings for others.

If you breed working dogs, you will value the improved working ability, intelligence and eagerness to work generation after generation. I myself could compare the learning speed and the will for co-operation with human at four generations of Cimarron Uruguayo dogs, while I have been working with 5 base dogs (first generation) brought from several different kennels.

We – breeders – sometimes hope that one day, we can reproduce our most beloved dog and have it alive in some of its offspring for many more years. I am a lucky breeder, as I could already achieve this multiple times. The dog, who I love the most, was able to produce similar offspring with two females from absolutely different lines.

Health

Last but not least, we want healthy dogs living as long as possible with us. The health should be the area of breeding, where no serious and reputable breeder should not do any compromises. If you start breeding ill dogs, you cannot expect the health of next generation will be improved. Although breeding is defined as improving of selected characteristics, you cannot breed sick dog and expect the health of the next generation will be improved by your activity. You can improve the breed itself only by ELIMINATING ill dogs from breeding. This is the reason I mention health as last parameter in this section. You should use only healthy dogs in your breeding program.

Start breeding

Before you start breeding you should sincerely answer some questions for yourself.

• Do you have a proper place (home) for dog breeding? You should count soon you will have +10 dogs!
• Do you have stable income also for the case if you cannot work as you will have to take care of your dogs (for example pampering an ill dog for long weeks or months or raise a big litter of puppies)?
• Do not forget, also some sold puppies or dogs might be returned to you! How will you handle such situations – are you ready to take care of those, who live only due to your will? Or will you wash your hand and leave those dogs to their fate?
• Are you ready to give up your comfort and conventional way of life?
• Are you ready to take care of dogs and puppies all the time, each day, also during holidays or if you are sick?
• Will your family support you?
• Are you ready to learn all the time and work on your professional and personal development?
• Are you ready to see the faults of your own dogs?
• Are you ready to eliminate any of your dog from your breeding program if it is not according to your expectations?
• Are you ready to breed in the next 10-20-30 or even more years?

Do not breed if:

• If you just have a bitch and only want to have a litter with her, it is not breeding.
• If you sell all your puppies and keep none of them for further breeding, it is not breeding. This is simply the production of dogs and increasing of the number of dogs of the given breed or even mixes.
• If you do not have a long-term plan (for many years upfront and for many next generations).
• If you are not willing to sacrifice plenty of years of your life.
• If you are not willing to sacrifice plenty of energy.
• If you are not willing to sacrifice huge amount of finances.
• If you will do compromises in breeding anytime you face a problem.
• If you cannot eliminate unsuitable individuals from the breeding program.
• If you are not strong enough to let a puppy or dog go if needed.

In such cases, rather enjoy your dog as a pet and forget about your idea to breed. If you start breeding, you will have to keep a lot of offspring from many generations at home and use new lines based on your plan. Thus, you will need a place for many dogs, plenty of energy and time to raise them, socialize and train them as well as excellent financial background not only to buy dogs, but also to feed them, ensure proper care and vet if needed, not to mention expenses connected with the training of all those dogs, dog shows etc. Dog breeding, especially of rare breeds, is a very expensive hobby.

The first step – selection of the breeder

The FIRST STEP in responsible dog breeding is the SELECTION of the right breeder. Excellent adult brood bitches are seldom available for sale so you will have to buy a puppy. You must select the right bitch and the key of your success might lie on the choice of her breeder. The proper selection of your first female is usually a really difficult task. If you want to know how Puppy choice at Cerberus Illusion kennel is done, feel free to read.

Breeder with know-how

In the beginning, you do not know the parents, the lines of the parents, nor all those dogs in the pedigree. You even do not know the character of the puppy as you only see some photos and videos. Maybe you have some information about the breed itself, but you might lack information, which is not public. There is enormous quantity of information the best breeders share among themselves. But, you might never get to them. There might be lines within the given breed, which the best breeder try to avoid as they know about their problems. There might be some dogs carrying serious problems – not only health problems but for example they may produce too big/small dogs or aggressive offspring, etc.

Important personality traits of a breeder

So, first of all, you must SELECT the breeder, who you trust, who is sympathetic to you and who you would like to get your puppy or even adult dog from. This breeder may help you a lot in the future with know-how and good advice. The personality of the breeder plays also significant role in the breeding. If you find a person, who is generally responsible, sincere, trustworthy, reputable, righteous, open and eager to do everything for 100 %, you can assume he or she will utilize these personal characteristics also as a breeder.

Such person should be also a responsible breeder talking sincerely about their dogs, ancestors of their puppies, share potential problems within the breed with you. You can also suppose that such a person will not do compromises in breeding and select only the best puppies for breeding. Except of some personal characteristics of the breeder, profound knowledge and continuous learning, as well as the ability of selection and elimination are the key factors of successful breeding.

The second step – selection of your first female puppy for breeding

As soon as you find the right breeder, he or she can SELECT you the right female puppy for breeding. It is always the breeder who knows the puppies the best. I assume the case when the breeder is almost 24/7 with the puppies and has enough knowledge, skills and experience in puppy selection. This is the know-how only the best breeders have. Too many breeders will tell you, it is impossible to say, which 8-weeks-old puppy will be suitable for show and breeding. The best ones will be able to select the best puppy already as soon as it is born. Of course, the breeder will keep watching that puppy, how it develops later, what its character and working potential will be, whether its bite is correct etc. But when the puppy gets 8-weeks-old, they will be able to say, their first choice was correct.

The proper selection requires sufficient skills and experience

Usually such a breeder kept at home plenty of puppies to see them growing up, to recognize the changes in unique growth periods, to witness the important changes from a puppy to a fully developed adult and to find out the most important characteristics, which they must watch at a really small puppy, to get a beautiful representative of the breed later.

Ideal conditions are essential

Sure, if you take home such a puppy and raise it the improper way, you can finally get a much worse dog. But this is no more the fault of the breeder. As this article is not about correct raising of puppies, I do not want to write about this in more details. But I give a few examples. You can destroy the bite or the position of adult teeth during the exchange of deciduous teeth by several ways (by tug wag playing, pulling, biting or even if the deciduous (milk) teeth are not extracted when needed). You can destroy the shape of front legs by improper nutrition or incorrect move, etc.

The third step – getting a brood bitch

After you have your desired female puppy at home a long process is in front of you. In this stage nobody can guarantee your puppy will become a brood bitch. If the breeder has enough experience and knows well their lines, you might be lucky, as they may predict well the anatomical development of their puppies. But, in the case that her bite after exchange of teeth is no more according to the standard, or she has one or more missing teeth, which cannot miss according to the standard, or some teeth are there multiple times, you have finished.

KINDLY DO NOT SEARCH VET DENTIST to correct it! DO NOT ASK YOUR FRIEND VET to give you a declaration about the missing tooth as if it was there and had to be extracted!!! Definitely do not use dog braces for teeth! This is all cheating, not breeding!!! In the long run, you’re only fooling yourself. As soon as you keep your own puppies, breed them, sooner or later this problem will appear again. If you sell all your puppies, those, who start breeding with your dogs might face these problems. Sooner or later they will find the dog in common at all of them. Your reputation will be thus destroyed sooner than you become famous. Or yes, you might get famous for producing dogs with bad bite or plus teeth or missing teeth.

The fourth step – health tests

Using only healthy animals usually results in healthy offspring as well. So if you chose your breeder well, he or she is breeding only such dogs. If you are lucky, your furry friend will come not only from healthy parents, but from a healthy line or even lines. But there are some health issues that might develop in your bitch regardless the excellent health of the ancestors. This is the reason there are health tests characteristic for each breed, which you should do at your dog at the specified age. ONLY DOGS WITH EXCELLENT HEALTH SHOULD BE USED FOR BREEDING!

This is my personal opinion as a breeder, who does everything possible to produce only healthy dogs. I love my dogs very much and I feel sick if any of my dogs is ill. It might be an injury, an accident or it might get colt – seeing the sad eyes of my dog makes me feel worse than my four-legged friend. I am sure, the majority of dog owners feels the same, so I do my best to give a healthy dog to all my puppy owners.

So, if there is any problem with your bitch – she did not developed properly, she has some health issues or her character or working potential lacks the characteristics required by the breed standard – STOP THINKING ABOUT BREEDING with her. You can still enjoy her as a family dog and companion, but you SHOULD NOT BREED HER!

The fifth step – selection of the suitable stud male

After your bitch grew up into a wonderful representative of the breed and her health test are excellent as well you can fulfil the conditions to get a brood bitch from her. Then you face the next step – the SELECTION OF THE SUITABLE STUD MALE. There is no faultless dog, so you should know the faults of your bitch. You should search for a male that does not have the same faults!

I myself have beautiful bitches but I am aware of the faults of each of them. This self-critic point of view can make you a TOP breeder later. Each time I was selecting a stud male for the given bitch, I compared them. I had a look not only at their anatomy, but also character and working potential as I not only wanted to produce nicer Cimarrons, but also to create working lines. The male had to be better than the bitch each time! Not to mention the fact each litter was carefully planned years upfront.

After you find an adult stud male you like and he suits to your female according to the anatomy (including the type), pedigree, character, working potential, you should ask his owner to show you his health results. Only if the selected male seems ideal to your female from all aspects, you should use him. This is the moment, where the BEST BREEDERS do not do any compromises! In my personal opinion, THE MALE MUST BE ALWAYS BETTER THAN THE BITCH. Sure, if the bitch is almost perfect, you will face a hard work to find a male of at least similar qualities. Some may fall into the mistake to use ANY male, as the female is already ideal, but this is a big mistake (and it is not breeding is you cannot improve anything)!

NEVER choose a male puppy instead of an adult stud male

If you start breeding, choosing a male puppy for your adult brood bitch will not help you at all. It brings too much risks. You do not know how he will develop in the future. You risk he will have the same faults as your brood bitch and you cannot use them together.

Example number 1: Head

For example, your brood bitch has a lighter head and your male puppy will finally grow into a big dog with a small – feminine head. Such a combination might result in the production of puppies with small heads. It is a catastrophic disaster especially in the case of male offspring. In Cimarrons, for example, the feminine head at males is a severe fault according to the standard as it is connected with the absence of sexual dimorphism! This fault is even more visible if you breed dogs at or even above the upper height limit at the withers mentioned in the standard. In such a case you can produce tall males with petite heads! It is definitely something that you should ELIMINATE FROM BREEDING FOREVER!

Example number 2: Size

Next example might be the case you have the smallest female from the litter (who is finally a small adult) and you buy the biggest male from another litter (who is finally over the standard limit). It is a huge mistake to think, the offspring of this couple will have ideal medium height at the withers. You might get medium-height offspring in F1, but THEN, you will get small, small, medium-height and tall dogs in F2. I bet everybody who started breeding with your F1 puppies will be unpleasantly surprised.

Many beginners excuse cheating at the usage of their incorrect male only because they imported him as a puppy for a lot of money. This is not a reason for not to eliminate him from the breeding program as soon as he does not develop well and according to the breed standard. I do not mean here the case the male does not suit to your own female but generally he is a correct representative of the breed, as in such a case you can offer him to other bitches. I am writing about problems for example with the exchange of the teeth, testicles or bad health tests.

The sixth step – ELIMINATION

After your first litter was born you will face the hardest thing. Elimination. If everything is perfect, all your puppies will be healthy and according to the breed standard and as they will grow, they will develop very well. Also their character and working abilities will be as desired. But, in the case some of your puppies will have serious or even disqualifying faults according to the breed standard, you should sell such a puppy as a hobby puppy, i. e. pet. You should not offer or keep it for show and breeding.

Example number 1: Color, marking

As an example I would like to mention my personal experience with my first litter of Cimarron Uruguayo dogs. A female with white markings on the top of neck, head and nose bridge was born. She has Uruguayan ancestors (the male, as well as both parents of the female were direct imports). But, you should not send such a dog to show nor breeding as this is classified as a severe fault according to the FCI standard. Such puppies should be ELIMINATED from breeding so I sold her as a pet only. We found her a family, where she could live a happy life as a family dog only. The new family had no rights to attend dog shows nor to use her in breeding.

In the population of Cimarrons, there were puppies who had a small white marking on restricted area of body as newborn puppies and as they were growing this white marking dismissed. BUT, we – breeders – ALWAYS know, how the given puppy was born. IT IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY not to sell them to shows nor breeding!!!

Example number 1: Lack of intelligence or working potential

The situation is alike at working abilities. Similarly as at people, also at dogs, their intelligence and working potential differs. If you select slow thinking puppy for breeding – you will definitely not improve a working breed, where we want intelligent dogs that learn fast. Likewise, if you breed with a dog, who you must train the same thing each day as if you were training it for the first time. But this is not the place to dive into the creation of working lines.

ONLY the best puppies should be selected for show & breed

So, you should select only the best puppies for show and breed. If you have no such a puppy, you should sell the whole litter as pets only without the possibility to breed them! You should ensure that the new owner cannot breed that puppy later. Some breeders limit the breeding rights at their puppies and sell only a few of them for show and breeding to keep their lines unique. In such a case, you can get a faultless puppy as a pet, only thanks to the breeder´s policy.

Are you aware of the importance of difficult decisions?

If you start breeding, in the worse case you might have one or more weak or very ill puppies. If any of the puppies has serious health issue incompatible with life, you should make the hardest decision yourself! As a breeder and owner who loves her own dogs very much, I know that the moment when we have to let our animals leave is one of the hardest. If you sell a sick puppy, you transfer your responsibility to the new owner. This is not correct at all! They will take the puppy home, enjoy it (for a short period of time), love it and then, their vet tells them the cruel reality concerning its health.

Once, a reputable breeder, one of my teachers whom I highly respect told: “Those, who cannot let a puppy go, should never breed!”

Breeding means IMPROVING as we mentioned in the beginning, where the SELECTION and ELIMINATION play key roles. Breeders must be prepared not only for the selection, but also elimination.

Result of responsible breeding and strict selection

Thanks to responsible selection and elimination in Cerberus Illusion kennel we could remove many faults during the years (including white marking on areas where they are not allowed according to the standard). It is a wonderful feeling if you do your job responsibly and when you keep a puppy for yourself, you can enjoy the exchange of the teeth, as you know it MUST be OK, as you selected the ancestors properly for many generations.

Similarly, if you let your young dog´s hips X-rayed, you are not surprised with HD – A result if you know, it is already the 7th generation of HD-A dogs in the pedigree while the latest 4 generations are running freely in your own garden. Nothing makes me feel happier than enjoying watching my old Cimarrons with graceful effortless movement.

Special advices from me as a breeder

NEVER fool your puppy owners nor yourself!

Advice number 1: Do what you claim

If you claim, health is important for you, kindly do not change your mind at the first problem! As soon as you let your bitch X-rayed and the result of her hip dysplasia is HD – C or even worse, eliminate her from breeding and let her enjoy a pet life! You can buy another bitch prospective for show and breeding and try to get a brood bitch from her.

Advice number 2: Set your aims high

Set your aims high and do not change your mind due to those who have no aims at all! If you decide to breed only HD – A dogs, then you will not accept a stud male with HD – B for your HD – A female. You can oppose: “But some even use HD – C male with a HD – C female!” Sure, some do such combinations or even worse. In the most cases these people have their first (and hopefully last) litter. Moreover, they most probably use the only two dogs, which are available for them. NEVER buy a puppy from such a person!

The sad thing is, the owner (not the producer of puppies) will bear the problems that will most probably appear at offspring after such couple. The producer will sell ALL PUPPIES (if they can). Kindly do not ask me to call them breeders – as this is not breeding in my eyes.

My personal experience at the beginning

Before I started breeding, I decided for myself that I will only breed my two females (sisters) if they are free of hip dysplasia (HD – A). They were. Then I started searching a stud male. There was only one available, but he had HD – B. I thought the same as now that the male must be better – also concerning health results. After that male got cancer it was more than clear, I will never use him. That was also the moment my girls were over 2 years old, with no suitable stud male in the whole Europe, I thought.

There were enough Cimarrons in Europe, but my expectations were setup high. Finally, I decided, I will rather not breed at all than making any compromise in the choice of the male. Then my friend suggested to search on google.com. Thus I found my base stud male – an adult Cimarron with anatomy and character suitable to both my females and with HD – A result. This was more than I could have dreamt of. At this moment I did not search for a working male as I already knew, nobody was breeding working Cimarrons.

I mentioned my personal experience as well as difficulties I used to face to motivate others who want to breed. If anybody who reads this article would like to BREED Cimarrons, feel free to contact me and I will be happy to help you. I am glad helping to sincere responsible breeders who would like to do it well.

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Author: Gabriella Hurtos, Cerberus Illusion kennel, 4th December 2025

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